Refrigerating apparatus



June 27, 1961 I R. E. THOMPSON 2,989,855

REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed May '7, 1960 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 o N N E N INVENTOR. Richard E. Thompson His Attorney J1me 1951 R. E. THOMPSON REFRIGERATING APPARATUS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 7, 1960 INVENTOR. Richard E. Thompson His Attorney J1me 1961 R. E. THOMPSON 2,989,855

REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed May 7, 1960 r 5 Sheets-Sheet a" O p q. as g In N INVENTOR. Ric/mm E. Thompson Y His Afton ey United States Patent Ofiflce 2,989,855 Patented June 27, 1961 2,989,855 REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Richard E. Thompson, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Filed Mar. 7, 1960, Ser. No. 12,984 'Claims. (Cl. 62-296) This invention pertains to refrigerating apparatus, such as air conditioners and especially to means for keeping air conditioners quiet.

In an effort to make air conditioners more compact, it is necessary to circulate the air through the unit at higher velocities. This increases the problem of keeping the air conditioner and particularly the air movement quiet.

It is an object of this invention to provide a simple inexpensive means for quieting an air conditioner.

It is another object of this invention to provide a simple inexpensive means which will efliciently guide the air and at the same time quiet the air.

These and other objects are attained in the form shown in the drawings in which there is located behind the evaporator a centrifugal fan which draws the air through the evaporator and discharges it upwardly into a discharge chamber which is low in height and wide. This discharge chamber has an opening in the bottom receiving the discharge of the centrifugal fan and on the opposite or upper side is provided with an air distributor which extends entirely across the top of the discharge chamber and is provided with downwardly projecting vanes to distribute the air and to guide it toward the discharge outlet. This distributing member is preferably made of molded polystyrene beads which serve not only to guide the air but also to quiet the air movement in conjunction with the design of the vanes.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings wherein a preferred embodiment of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a vertical sectional view of an air conditioner embodying my invention taken along the line 11 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 2 is a horizontal sectional view of FIGURE 1 taken along the lines 2-2 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary transverse sectional view taken along the lines 33 of FIGURE 1; and

FIGURE 4 is a bottom view looking upward at the distributing member shown in FIGURES 1 and 3.

Referring now to the drawings and more particularly to FIGURE 2, there is shown a base pan 20 provided with an upwardly turned rim 22. Mounted upon this base pan is a central vertical partition wall 24 of metal provided with a condenser fan scroll 26 on the one side having an inlet 28 connecting to the inner face of the condenser 30 which is divided by a partition 32 into a section 34 behind the opening 28 and a section 36 adjacent the sealed motor-compressor unit 38. The condenser 34 is provided with a shroud 40 connecting its inner face with the inlet 28 of the condenser fan scroll 26.

Within this shroud 40 is a water flinger ring 42 provided upon an extended portion of the drive shaft 44 of the fan motor 46 which is mounted upon the L-shaped brackets '48 connected to the partition wall 24. Also mounted upon the adjacent end of the drive shaft 44 is a centrifugal fan wheel 50 which draws the air through the section 34 of the condenser 30 past the flinger ring 42 and through the inlet 28 into its interior and discharges the air through the scroll 26 into the compartment 52 containing the sealed motor-compressor unit 38 from which the air is discharged through the condenser section 36. The partition wall 24 is provided with a cup-shaped depression 54 to receive the adjacent end of the fan motor 46. This adjacent end of the fan motor 46 has the evaporator end of its drive shaft 44 extending through the partition wall 24 and connecting to the evaporator fan wheel 56 which is located behind the evaporator 58.

The evaporator 58 is supported by the side members 60 and 62 which are mounted upon the base and have flanges 6-4 and 66 which connect to another partition wall 68 located adjacent the inner face of the evaporator 58. The partition wall 68 is provided with a flanged opening 7% between the evaporator 58 and the evaporator blower wheel 56. This opening 70 is concentric with the wheel 56. The wheel 56 has forward curved blades and rotates counterclockwise as viewed in FIGURE 1. The wheel 56 is located within the evaporator blower scroll 72 which is located between the partition walls 2 and 68. This evaporator blower scroll 72 has an upper discharge opening 74 in a horizontal partition wall 76 extending above the evaporator 58 and the blower scroll 72. The horizontal partition wall 76 has a turned up vertical rear wall portion 78 located over the sealed motor-compressor unit and constituting an extension of the partition wall 24 to provide a rear enclosure for the air discharge compartment 80. This partition wall 76 and portion 78 have a hump portion 122 over the motorcompressor unit 38 for adequate clearance and compactness. The moto-ncompressor compartment 52 is separated from the evaporator air duct system by the evaporator fan scroll 72, the vertical wall 78, the horizontal partition wall 76 and an extension 82 of the vertical partition wall 68.

According to my invention, the discharge duct located above the horizontal partition wall 76 within the walls 78 and 224 and above the evaporator 58 is provided with a combined air deflector, distributor and air silencer, generally designated by the reference character 84. This air deflector and silencer is provided with a horizontal wall portion 86 located beneath the outer cabinet wall 88. It is also pro-vided with end walls 90 and 92 and a series of air deflectors designated by the reference characters 94, 96, 98 and 121 which distribute the air issuing from the opening from the centrifugal fan wheel 56 beneath and project this air laterally and forwardly for distributed discharge through the discharge outlet 123 in the outer front wall 125 of the ornamental enclosure of the conditioner. This front wall is also provided with an inlet opening 127 in front of the evaporator 58.

This member 84 is preferably molded of foamed p0lystyrene or, as it is sometimes otherwise called, expanded polystyrene or polystyrene beads. Preferably the density is about two pounds per cubic foot. This configuration and this location of this member and the material used acts to provide an inexpensive eflicient air deflector and distributor which distributes the air from the opening 74 to the outlet 123 in such a way that the discharge is substantially uniform across the front face 125 of the conditioner. It also makes the air movement very quiet and the location of the wall portion 86 serves to absorb the noise from the fan 56 along with the curved air deflecting vanes 94, 96, 98 and 121 which project downwardly from the duct wall portion 86 of this member 84. It should be noted that the deflector vanes 94, 96, 88 and 121 do not extend to the horizontal partition wall 76 but, in fact, are considerably spaced from it and that their projected width or distance project from the wall portions 86 increases as they are positioned further away from the opening 74. The scroll 72 directs the air from the blower wheel 56 through the opening 74 upwardly and to the left as viewed in FIGURE 1.

The maximum in quietness is achieved when the air issuing from the outlet opening 123 is uniformly distributed. The deflector vanes 94 to 121 considered in the sequence of air movement from right to left increase in vertical height as Well as in length measured horizontally and in the angle relative to the face of the opening 123 to achieve this result. The smallest vane 94 is located in the path of the greatest air flow directly over the blower outlet opening 74 and serves to deflect only an amount of air proportional to the adjacent part of the opening 123. The vane 96 receives less air and is therefore larger to deflect a substantially equal amount of air. The same principle is applicable to the vanes 98 and 121. a

This, therefore, is a simple inexpensive way of securing good distribution and quiet operation in a compact conditioner in which a large amount of air is circulated through a relatively small space at a relatively high velocity. The use of foam resin material is an excellent and inexpensive sound absorber. If desired, other foamed plastic resins may be used, such as polyurethane foams of substantially the same density, phenol formaldehyde foams or epoxy resin foams. These may be molded in substantially the same configuration and density to serve substantially the same purpose.

While the embodiment of the present invention as herein disclosed, constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted.

What is claimed is as follows:

1.An air conditioner including refrigerant liquefying means and an evaporator operatively connected to the liquefying means, duct means associated with said evaporator having a discharge portion provided with an inlet in one Wall and an air deflector and silencer having surfaces of foamed plastic resin upon an opposite wall including a duct wall portion parallel to said one Wall directly opposite said inlet and directional vanes integral with and projecting from said parallel duct wall portion toward said one wall, and means for circulating air through said evaporator and through said inlet against said vanes and duct wall for discharge through said discharge portion.

2. An air conditioner including refrigerant liquefying means and an evaporator operatively connected to the liquefying means, duct means associated with said evaporator having a discharge portion provided with an outlet, said discharge portion including opposite walls extending to said outlet, one of said opposite walls being provided with an inlet, said duct means including means for directing the air flow from said evaporator through said inlet against the other opposite wall, the other of said opposite Walls including an air deflector and silencer having surfaces of foamed plastic resin, said air deflector including a duct wall portion and directional vanes projecting from said duct wall portion toward said one wall.

3. An air conditioner including refrigerant liquefying means and an evaporator operatively connected to the liquefying means, duct means associated With said evaporator having a discharge portion provided with a long narrow outlet, said discharge portion including opposite walls extending substantially parallel to the longer sides of said outlet, one of said opposite walls being provided with an inlet adjacent one of its ends, the other of said opposite walls including a series of directional vanes projecting from said other wall toward said one wall and extending from a location opposite said opening in said one wall substantially to the opposite side of said duct means, the vanes being consecutively greater in the amount of projection toward said one wall from said opening in said one wall substantially to the opposite side of said duct means.

4. An air conditioner including refrigerant liquefying means and an evaporator operatively connected to the liquefying means, duct means associated with said evaporator having a discharge portion provided with a long narrow outlet, said discharge portion including, opposite walls extending substantially parallel to the longer sides of said outlet, one of said opposite walls being provided with an inlet adjacent one of its ends, the other of said opposite walls including a series of directional vanes projecting from said other wall toward said one wall and extending from a location opposite said opening in said one wall substantially to the opposite side of said duct means, the vanes curving toward different parts of said long narrow outlet diagonally away from said inlet.

5. An air conditioner including refrigerant liquefying means and an evaporator operatively connected to the liquefying means, duct means associated with said evaporator having a discharge portion provided with a long narrow outlet, said discharge portion including opposite walls extending substantially parallel to the longer sides of said outlet, one of said opposite walls being provided with an inlet adjacent one of its ends, the other of said opposite Walls including a series of directional vanes projecting from said other wall toward said one wall and extending from a location opposite said opening in said one wall substantially to the opposite side of said duct means, and a centrifugal fan located in said duct means and having its periphery adjacent said inlet and rotating in a direction to direct the discharge therefrom toward the other end of said discharge portion.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,214,467 Lambert Sept. 20, 1940 2,807,992 Ehman Oct. 1, 1957 2,835,187 Schell u--. May 20, 1958 

